Brian and Brendan were introduced to each other in December of 2008. Brendan’s Family, Jessica Frederick of C.A. and Brian met up for dinner at The Mineshaft, in Hartford, WI, to eat and chat. From there on Brian and Brendan have hung out, played games, exercised, and talked about life in general. They have been to a Bucks game and even a couple of Brewer Games, thanks to friends with free tickets. They have played Disc Golf, played family board games, Nintendo Wii, and even shot a Bow and Arrow together. Brian has been a member of the West Bend YMCA for years and always enjoyed the classes there, so he introduced Brendan to the YMCA and he became a member too. At the YMCA they can be found taking a Cardio Kickboxing class together, lifting weights, shooting hoops, jogging, or using many of the other machines there. As we mentioned Brendan has always enjoyed running, but Brian had yet to find enjoyment in running. Soon, Brendan had invited Brian to join his family to cheer him on in some local 5k races. In 2009 they watched Brendan run the 5k Sausage Race at Miller Park, where he placed 79th out of 2500 runners. WOW!!!! The excitement of finishing with an awesome achievement like that has speared Brian on to try to finish a 5k with Brendan sometime soon. They were scheduled to run together the next week at another 5k, but it was rained out. Well, it will most likely happen in 2010, with no doubt that Brendan will be finishing well ahead of Brian. Lets hope that it is not too much of an embarrassment for Brian or all the other people that Brendan leaves in his dust, LOL. Another goal of 2010 for Brendan is to train and run in a half marathon. It could be in a local marathon or even in the fall of 2010 at Disney Land, Florida. There is no doubt that running will be a large part of Brendan’s life and that he will push himself in new running goals and competitions for years to come. He loves the support of his family and friends, like Brian, when he challenges himself in his passion of running.
Brendan’s life does consist of a lot of physical exercising, but at the same time he is a Slinger High Schooler, teenager, and is coming into Adulthood. There will be decisions of what to do after High School, relationship possibilities, and what direction his life will go. Brian hopes to be a positive influence in some of these future choices and paths. Only time will tell where Brendan ends up in his life. Because Brendan has a great family, supportive teachers, and an advocate like Brian, Brendan is likely to be very successful in any task he takes on. We can all look back and see times in our own lives where a helping hand, advice, and support would have made our lives better. That is essentially what Citizen Advocacy is all about and this friendship between Brendan and Brian would have never happened with out Citizen Advocacy of Washington County. Everyone in the world can use more friends, but to make a friend, you have to start by being a friend!
Brian